It is no wonder why telecom companies make zillions in this world. From over charging sms rates and data rates to internet. The biggest legal scam ever.
Batelco just released their new pricing. Some will say that these are good. But they are only good when compared to Bahraini rates, which are a rip off anyway. In real life, it is bad. Very very bad.
The rates, if you are still in the dark:
| Speed | Price | Max Usage |
|---|
| 10MB | BD80 | 50GB |
| 8MB | BD60 | 40GB |
| 4MB | BD50 | 25GB |
| 2MB | BD30 | 20GB |
| 1MB | BD25 | 15GB |
| 640kb | BD16 | 5GB |
| 256kb | BD10 | 2GB |
How about that?
In a discussion on Facebook in the Bahraini Internet Society's group, I posted this (with correction):
Some of you may know that I host a gaming show at
Ithnain.com. So from a videogamer viewpoint: These speeds are useless.
Speeds and ping rates prevent us from playing online properly with other players. Simply the devices and software are not designed for our slow "speednets".
We are falling behind on productivity. As an example: There is a device called
OnLive,
which will be an always connected gaming console. Its minimum (I repeat: Minimum) speed requirement is (real) 1.5MB. I said real, not "up to". That is the minimum.
Average performance is suggested at 5mb.
(Wikipedia)
By looking at this device alone we can see that we are no longer going along the rest of earth. Even Facebook, Vimeo & You Tube find it hard when I upload videos and I must use the "basic" uploader for our "slow" speeds. I have 1 Mb at home and 2 mb at work.
Netflix are renting movies online by straeming them in Hi Definition. This would be impossible in Bahrain. When will it be possible? Probably when a strong family business man or a royal makes a similar site and orders Batelco to increase speeds to accomodate this.
These new Batelco speeds and prices are appalling. The prices would be right if you multiply the speeds by 10. ie: 100mb for BD 80, and so on. Don't get me started on the threshold. I do know that a few (very very few) companies abroad have thresholds but they are much, MUCH higher than these weak limits. Threshold should be to prevent you from making your PC a server or a torrent seed point, not to stop you from using the damn connection!
If this situation is not fixed and soon, we could find ourselves in the next two years with unusable websites and services.
You've been warned.
